USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 14
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ISAAC G. BURNET was active in the affairs of Dayton for many years. He was the editor of the Ohio Centinel, the successor of the Repertory and for a short time of the Ohio Republican, the successor of the Centinel, his editorial labors extending from 1810 to 1815. He served on the select council, being elected president in 1809. He was prosecuting attorney for Montgomery county from 1808 to 1812, and in 1815 was one of the county commissioners. He gave up his place as editor on being elected to the state legislature in 1815. He later removed to Cincinnati, where, in 1819, he was elected mayor, and where, in 1840, he was serving as clerk of the supreme court. He was a man of talent and education and exerted an excellent influence.
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HORATIO G. PHILLIPS was born in New Jersey, December 21, 1783. In 1804, he was persuaded by D. C. Cooper to take up his residence in Dayton. In 1805, he made a trip to Philadelphia to buy goods and to New Jersey for his bride, Eliza Smith Houston, daughter of William Churchill Houston, at one time a professor in Princeton college and a grandson of Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, the first president of Princeton college. They were married April 10, 1806. and made their bridal trip on horseback to Pittsburg and by flat-boat to Cincinnati and by wagon to Dayton. In 1809, when their baby. Elizabeth, was three months old, they went on horseback to their old home, Mr. Phillips carrying the baby in a net suspended from his neck and supported by a pillow resting on the pommel of his saddle, and leading a pack-horse carrying the luggage. Aside from his extensive merchandising business, Mr. Phillips was interested in many large enterprises that made for the prosperity of Dayton. Mr. Phillips' wife died in 1831, and in 1836 he married Mrs. Catherine Patterson Irwin, daughter of Colonel Robert Patterson. Her first husband was Henry Brown. Mr. Phillips died November 10, 1859.
ABRAHAM DARST came to Dayton in 1805 and opened a store in a brick building erected by him on the west side of Main street north of Second street. December 21, 1809, he was married to Mary Wolf. Mr. Darst was a man of strict integrity and occupied many positions of trust and usefulness. Mr. Darst's thrift in business and influence in the community as well, was largely due to the talent and energy of his wife, who readily suited herself to the requirements of pioneer conditions.
HUGH MCCULLUM, of McCullum tavern fame, furnished the public meeting place for many purposes from 1804 for many years thereafter. Town meetings and sheriff's sales were advertised, the latter as late as 1815, to be at the "house of Hugh McCullum." He was elected to the select council. By the select council, he was twice elected town treasurer.
COLONEL ROBERT PATTERSON became a resident of Dayton in 1804. Though his home was at the first outside the corporation, he and his family were so im- mediately connected with the growth and community life of Dayton even from the first that a sketch of his life is in place here. He was born of Scotch ances- try, March 15, 1753, near Big Cove Mountain in what was then Bedford county, Pennsylvania. He was a son of Francis, son of Robert, who with his father John came to America in 1728. The family of Francis had become inured to hardship and accustomed to danger in their new home in western Pennsylvania.
In the spring of 1774, at the age of twenty-one, he enrolled in a company of rangers proceeding with Governor Dunmore to Fort Pitt. The rangers fifty strong were thrown across the Ohio for scouting service. Throughout the Dun- more campaign, which led to an important treaty with the Indians, they per- formed a hazardous but useful part. In this campaign, young Patterson was brought into contact with Boone, Kenton, Harrod and other Indian fighters.
In October, 1775, a party of seven, including Robert Patterson, and with one entire family in addition, descended the Ohio in boats. In one boat were fourteen cattle and in another nine horses. They took full supplies of food and ammuni- tion and took every precaution against being surprised by the Indians. On ar- riving in Kentucky, various journeys were made. A camp was pitched on the
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future site of Lexington. Some time was spent in surveying and staking claims. The winter was spent at a station established by the immigrant family. The next year, Patterson planted a patch of corn. In the fall of 1776, with six companions, he started in a canoe up the Ohio river, the purpose being to replenish their de- pleted store of ammunition. On the 12th of October, they landed on the Ohio side of the river, and while sleeping were fired upon by Indians and then attacked with tomahawks. Robert Patterson's arm was broken by a gunshot and he was savagely cut in the back with a tomahawk. One of the party was killed, another mortally wounded, one was taken prisoner, and but one escaped unhurt. After unspeakable hardships, the survivors were rescued.
Having recovered from his wounds, Patterson in 1777 was again in Kentucky. In 1778, he was a member of George Rogers Clark's army, in the Illinois cam- paign, that did so much to win for the United States the great Northwest. He was promoted to the rank of ensign. In 1779, he entered a large tract of land where he had formerly built a cabin and laid out the town of Lexington. In 1779, he took part in the fruitless campaign led by Colonel Bowman against Old Chillicothe on the Little Miami. In the winter following, he returned to his old home in Pennsyl- vania and married Elizabeth Lindsay, whom he brought back with him to the cabin at Lexington which he had erected as his future dwelling place. In 1780, he commanded a company under George Rogers Clark against the Shawnee vil- lages on the Little Miami and Mad rivers. In 1882, he passed through the ter- rible defeat at Blue Licks. Soon after this, he was again with Clark in an ex- pedition against the Indians at Piqua and Loramie, this time going and returning by the mouth of Mad river.
After this campaign, he was employed in Kentucky in various civil and mili- tary functions until 1786, when he commanded a regiment under Colonel Logan against the Indians at the head of Mad river. Here, in a hand-to-hand fight with an Indian chief, two of the bones of his hand were broken. The injury, followed by the bad care that it received, led to the breaking out of his old wound, which never afterward healed. In 1788, he became a joint owner along with Matthias Denman and John Filson of the site of Cincinnati. In 1791, he shared the hard- ships and rout of St. Clair's defeat.
Becoming involved financially by going security, he began to consider seeking a location north of the Ohio where land could still be had at a low price. He sold his interest in Cincinnati in 1794, and in 1799 and 1802, made visits to the country along the Little Miami to Dayton and the land along Twin creek. In 1803, he bought land at Cliffton on the Little Miami, where he afterward erected a mill and the same year bought of Mr. Cooper his farm and mills immediately south of Dayton. He with William Lindsay also bought a large tract of land immediately west of the Miami river. The following year, he and his family took up their residence on what was soon afterward named the "Rubicon Farm." Colonel Pat- terson gave himself with characteristic vigor to the cultivation of his farm and the raising of stock. To the mills which he bought he added carding, fulling and dyeing mills and appliances. His sons, as they grew up, added their assistance. In 1812, he was commissioned forage master general and given charge of the securing and forwarding of large amounts of army supplies, Dayton being the center for collecting and forwarding.
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In Fourth of July celebrations, Colonel Patterson and other heroes of the Revolutionary and Indian wars received marked attention. Among these heroes, in whom Colonel Patterson took great delight, were Colonel Samuel Hawkins, Major George Adams and Dr. John Hole, Dr. Elliot and Judge Spinning.
Colonel Patterson was a man of deep religious convictions and was actively connected with the Presbyterian church, first at Lexington and then at Dayton. He died at the Rubicon home November 9, 1827.
The coming to Dayton of the large family of Colonel Patterson, three sons and five daughters, brought new features and factors to the life of Dayton. They had received the impress of Lexington society, and, without losing this, they entered with the fullest freedom and zest into the community life of their new home. Catherine, whose first husband was Henry Brown, always active and vivacious, gives the following picture of the social life of the times :
"With the work that we always had to do about the house, and improvements constantly being made and our surroundings pleasant, we became attached to our Rubicon home, and these warm feelings for the old place never left me, and it was the same with my brothers and sisters who lived there longer so happily with father and mother. I lived there seven winters ; as I grew into womanhood I had a saddle horse of my own, riding often to visit Elizabeth ( Mrs. Nisbet) on Twin creek, or Mr. Hole's family, sometimes with Francis on business for father in the little German settlement called Hole's Station, or near there to visit Major Adams and family at the Muster Prairie. With mother I frequently rode over to the Bradfords, and down to Beulah or to our cousins on Beaver, where I many times stayed over night or for longer visits. We had many pleasant times at the Edgar and Van Cleve homes, and with the Millers on Stillwater, or farther up in the quiet Waymire neighborhood, or east of the Miami at times in the Whitten home. The Williams and King's were nice people on Wolf creek. The Kings had been pleasant family acquaintances, members of the same church in Ken- tucky. We visited Rev. Robinson and wife up Mad river, and other friends at Mercer's and Xenia ; and with the Ewings, Archers and others on Sugar creek."
The Patterson sawmill was near Main street, the gristmill on Brown street, then the Lebanon road. The humbler dwelling gave place to a commodious brick house in 1816. A sulphur spring, at one time advertised for its medicinal vir- tues, is now within the grounds of St. Mary's Institute. A large number of springs, one especially large on the present grounds of the State Hospital, sup- plied the water for turning the Rubicon mills. The farm was a noted place for picnics. Much of romance is centered about the Patterson elm standing between the Cash Register buildings and Brown street.
Colonel Patterson brought with him some of the blacks who were his slaves in Kentucky. Slavery, while bad enough, was not in Kentucky what it was in some other places, as the song of "Nellie Gray" witnesses. Some of these ncgroes continued in the service of Colonel Patterson till their death. Some were per- suaded to seek or assert their liberty. In 1805, an action was brought against Robert Patterson seeking the freedom of "Moses a black man." Colonel Pat- terson's answer was that Moses belonged to William Lindsay of Kentucky, and that he had driven a team to Ohio bringing household goods, with the under-
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standing that he should return to said Lindsay and that said Moses had "since absconded." A few days later, action was brought against Colonel Patterson seeking the freedom of "a certain black man named Edward Page, alias Ned, and a certain black woman named Lucy Page, alias Luce," they being "detained in slavery contrary to the laws and constitution of the State of Ohio." The court ordered their liberation. In 1806, Edward Page cast his vote at a town election.
The Patterson name has been continued through Jefferson Patterson, the youngest son of Colonel Patterson, born May 27, 1801, who on February 23, 1833, married Julia Johnston, daughter of Colonel John Johnston, long serving as In- dian agent at Piqua, Ohio.
FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION.
July 4, 1809, there was a grand celebration, the first of which we have an ac- count. The militia and the citizens of the town and vicinity assembled on the river bank at the head of Main street and marched to the court house. The exer- cises consisted of singing and the delivery of an oration. A large number of citi- zens proceeded to the house of Henry Disbrow, where, following an elaborate dinner, many toasts were responded to. In the exercises of the day the light dra- goons under Captain James Steele and an infantry company under Captain Paul D. Butler had a prominent part.
FIRST POLITICAL CONVENTION.
The first political convention of which we have any record met at the court house September 6, 1809. David Reid was chosen chairman, and Benjamin Van Cleve, clerk. For representatives in the State Legislature Joseph H. Crane of Montgomery county and David Purviance of Preble county were named. Jerome Holt was named for sheriff, David Squier for coroner, and John Folkerth for commissioner. The entire ticket was elected. The convention was local and non- political. A convention was soon afterward held in another part of the county nominating different men for some of the offices.
PIONEER CUSTOMS.
Before getting further away from the early days, we may notice some of the pioneer customs and conditions. The men were first of all hunters and expert wielders of the ax. Wild turkeys, deer, and squirrels were to be had for the taking. The rivers abounded in fish. Small trees were cut down and many of the larger ones were girdled and left to die. Log rollings and the raising of the rude cabins furnished occasions for the gathering of the men. Whiskey, after the first few years, was plenty, and was regarded as the "elixir of life." Trials of strength and prowess were always connected with these gatherings, and not infrequently, quarrels and fights took place. In the Dayton community, fights took place not so much from petty quarrelsomeness as from the custom of settling real or sup- posed grievances out of court. Shooting matches brought the men and women to- gether for social enjoyment. The hospitality of the pioneers was unstinted, per- sons twenty miles apart were neighbors, and all stood on an equal footing.
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A favorite enjoyment and amusement of the early settlers is thus described by Curwen :
"Fire-hunting, as it was called, was, at that day, a favorite amusement. The deer came down to the river bank, in the evening, to drink, and sheltered them- selves, for the night, under the bushes, which grew along the shore. As soon as they were quiet, the hunters in pirogues, paddled slowly up the stream, the steersman holding aloft a burning torch of dried hickory bark, by the light of which the deer were discovered and fired upon. If the shot was successful, the party landed, skinned the animal, hung the carcass upon a tree, to be brought home in the morning, and then proceeded to hunt more game."
Wolves and panthers, the persistent troublers of the settlers, were shot and trapped, the county for a number of years paying a bounty of one dollar for the scalp of a grown animal and fifty cents for the scalp of an animal less than six months old.
Skins of animals were used for mats, clothing, blankets and so forth. The skins were tanned in a trough sunk in the ground, the necessary bark being easily provided.
The cabins were generally built of round logs, the frames of windows and doors being fastened by wooden pins to the logs. The cracks were chinked with wood and daubed with mud. Paper made translucent with bear's grease was used instead of glass. The floors were laid with puncheons.
The pioneer women had few utensils and conveniences. In some ways their work was thus lessened, making place for work at the spinning-wheel and the loom. Corn was the principle article of food. At first it was crushed in the hominy-block, the finer part being sifted out for meal. The trundle-bed fur- nished accommodation for two or three youngsters and a curtained bed in the corner furnished a sleeping place for guests. Many of the cabins had a low attic reached by a stationary ladder close to the wall. The long winter evenings were used to good purpose. The women were busy spinning, sewing, plaiting straw, etc. The men were shelling corn, making or mending articles for farm use, breaking flax, cleaning guns, running bullets, etc. Books were scarce, but the few that were within reach were well-read. The women diverted them- selves, and profited as well, with quiltings and apple cuttings and the like. As money was scarce, barter was common. Many produced nearly everything that they consumed.
We hear much of a "skin currency," but the Dayton community, while rec- ognizing such a medium, was never more than partially dependent on it. This currency ran somewhat thus : a muskrat skin, twenty-five cents; a coonskin, one and a half muskrat skins ; a doeskin, two muskrat skins; a buckskin, four musk- rat skins ; a bear skin, twelve to twenty muskrat skins.
While the Dayton community had its Indian scares and was compelled to be watchful against treachery and surprise, there were no Indian atrocities per- petrated within its bounds. Many of the Indians who came into the neighbor- hood were drunken and troublesome, but the Indians proved advantageous by the trade which their hunting and trapping and their wants created.
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CONDITIONS IN 1810.
The following from Freeman's Almanac, gives the earliest account of Day- ton, published at the time of its being written, that has come down to us. It says : "There are now (10th of August, 1810) a brick court house, an academy and five other brick houses, 26 frame houses, 19 hewed log houses and 17 cab- ins containing families.
"The town, the academy, and library company are incorporated by several acts of the legislature. There are a printing office, 6 licensed taverns, 5 stores, 2 cut-nail factories, a tannery, a brewery, 3 saddler's shops, 3 hatter's shops, 3 cabinet-maker's shops, one rifle gunsmith, I jeweler, I watchmaker, I sickle- maker, I wagonmaker, besides smiths, carpenters, masons, tailors, weavers and dyers. Population males over sixteen, 131; whole population, 383.".
CHAPTER III.
PERIOD FROM 1810 TO 1830.
LOCAL CONDITIONS-OMINOUS CALAMITIES-WAR OF 1812-SAWMILLS-THE
TOWN ENLARGING-LABOR-THE BANK-LEADING MERCHANTS-TAVERNS- BREWERIES AND DISTILLERIES-HARD TIMES-TRANSPORTATION BY BOATS-LAND TRANSPORTATION-PRESIDENTS AND RECORDERS-AMENDMENTS TO CHARTER- FIRST MARKET-HOUSE-NEW MARKET-HOUSE-TOWN IMPROVEMENTS-THE CANAL-STAGE LINES-MAD RIVER BRIDGE-BRIDGE STREET BRIDGE-CANAL BRIDGES-STREET IMPROVEMENTS-FLOODS AND LEVEES-FIRES AND FIRE-FIGHT- ING-JAILS-COUNTY OFFICES-DIVERSIONS-SOCIAL AND MORAL FEATURES- BENEVOLENT AND RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES-MUSIC, SCHOOLS, CHURCHES-SUNDAY SCHOOLS-NEW FACTORIES-SUMMARIES.
LOCAL CONDITIONS.
An even hundred years ago Dayton was passing from infancy to vigorous and yet precarious childhood. The land and the people, as already noticed, were in her favor. Some local features and others at a distance were not so favorable.
In 1810, the dissatisfied and turbulent condition of the Indians on the Indiana border was a menace. The following year they met their defeat at Tippecanoe at the hands of General Harrison. Meanwhile, Dayton merchants were bringing large stocks of goods from Philadelphia, and new industries were being estab- lished. Henry Brown had two large warehouses on the present Phillips house lot in which to store his supplies for his large Indian trade. As an early war with Great Britain and the Indians seemed not distant, he began to retire his goods to his Dayton warehouses.
Before 1811 political parties were hardly known in Dayton. Federalists and Republicans (Democrats) were often voted for on the same ticket. But in 181I, party feeling ran so high that the people divided and held two celebrations on the Fourth of July, instead of one. The Federalists shared the sentiments of John Adams and were generally opposed to war with Great Britain, while the Republi- cans (Democrats) sympathized with the views of Thomas Jefferson, and were hostile to Great Britain. Early events in Ohio had largely won the favor of the people of Ohio for the party of Jefferson. Finally, when war was declared against Great Britain, the people of Ohio and of the country at large gave it their ap- proval. England had treated with arrogance the young republic, impressed into British service her seamen, and had trampled on her commercial aspirations.
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OMINOUS CALAMITIES.
In ISII, there was an epidemic of croup or some other form of throat disease, which caused the death of a large number of children.
A comet was visible in 1811, and this together with a series of earthquakes throughout the Ohio valley occurring in 1811 and 1812, were regarded by many of the people as ominous of private or public misfortune. December 16 and 17, 18II, there were at Dayton repeated earthquake shocks. The first and severest shock occurred between two and three o'clock in the morning. The people were aroused and alarmed. Cattle and horses were excited and fowls left their roosts in fright. Between January 23d and February 13, 1812, other shocks occurred, some of them severe. New Madrid, Missouri, on the Mississippi, was nearly de- stroyed by an earthquake while these shocks were occurring in Ohio.
WAR OF 1812.
The account of Montgomery county in the war of 1812 will be given in an- other chapter. Some of the local occurrences or effects may be noticed here. As Dayton was the place for concentrating troops and stores for the western cam- paign against the British, Dayton was naturally the scene of great excitement and activity. Patriotism and military enthusiasm were excited to a high degree. As supplies could not be quickly secured from a distance, the appeal to the sym- pathy and patriotism of the people of Dayton, of women as much as of men, was urgent and was not made in vain. Dayton people and Dayton soldiers nobly did their part in the war, and when the war was over united in the general rejoicing. For the two years of the war, business was greatly stimulated in Dayton, the ex- penditures for carrying on the war bringing much money into the community. In the time of the war, on account of the threatening attitude of the Indians, two or three block houses were erected in Montgomery county.
In 1812 a frame building to be used as a military hospital was erected on a vacant part of the courthouse lots. Here sick and wounded soldiers were cared for. Dr. John Steele, brother of Judge James Steele, was placed in charge. Some of the soldiers who died in Dayton were buried in the cemetery at the northeast corner of Main and Third streets. After the war, Dr. Steele continued to reside in Dayton, he and his family after him occupying most prominent and honorable places.
SAWMILLS.
While the soldiers were encamped in Dayton awaiting orders, Mr. Cooper em- ploved some of them in digging a race from the old sawmill, erected in 1804 or 1805, at the corner of First and Sears streets, to the intersection of Fifth street and the present canal, where the sawmill was erected, that stood till 1847. Be- fore the two sawmills named was the little sawmill at the head of Mill street. A little explanation will make the history of these sawmills plainer. The original sawmill and gristmill were run by a strong current of water brought in by a short race from Mad river and emptying by the gully down Mill street. When
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Mr. Cooper came back to the village after selling his farm and mills south of the village to Colonel Patterson he brought in a race from about one mile up Mad river. He now changed the character of his mills to suit his new water-power, placing his sawmill at Sears street. This mill was changed into a turning lathe when the new sawmill was established at Fifth street. His group of mills now consisted of a flouring mill, a fulling mill, a machine shop, a turning lathe and a sawmill.
THE TOWN ENLARGING.
In 1813, real estate speculation ran high. Lots were platted and sold up Mad river as far as the Staunton ford. A little later to the scattered cabins on the low ground west of Perry street the name "Specksburg" was given, for Barnhart Speck, a baker who lived on the bottom near Third street as later ex- tended. Perry street ran along what was then the second bank of the Miami river. It received its present name in honor of the hero of Lake Erie. "Buck- lot" or "buck pasture" included the land between the two canals north of Third and east of Mill street. It received its name because it was at an early day a gathering place for deer drawn there by the many springs there found. The part of Dayton south of Third street was called in derision "cabintown" from the nature of the houses in that part. In 1816, Dr. James Welsh laid out a rival town in what was later called Dayton View, calling it North Dayton, expecting it to be built up to serve those who found it inconvenient to cross to the south of the river. In 1821, he asked permission to vacate the town. In 1819, sixty- four lots along where Central avenue now is, were platted by Joseph Peirce and the place was called Pierson. This plat was later vacated. Everywhere on the original plat were a larger or fewer number of houses. A condition in the sale of the lots donated to the county by Mr. Cooper was that they should be built on within a certain time, and these lots were widely scattered.
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